1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cultivating equipment and more particularly relates to an improved cultivator and land leveler device that can be towed by a tractor and which includes a pivoting frame having front and rear sections joined by a transverse pivot. As the pivot elevates, the front section of the frame inclines to elevate tines and a load leveling blade. The tines are independently moveable between raised and lowered positions with respect to the front frame section thus providing a dual adjustability to elevation of the tines and an adjustability of the tines relative to the elevational position of the land leveling blade.
2. General Background
In the cultivation of land, towed cultivators are known in the art. There are presently available field cultivators, land levelers, seed bed conditioners, and disk devices for breaking up land.
Several cultivators and land levelers are the subject of issued United States patents. An earlier patent that shows a scraper or land leveler is U.S. Pat. No. 2,566,562 issued to Omhale and entitled "Scraper and Backfilling Blade Attachment for Tractors". The '562 patent discloses a blade attachment for tractors that includes a beam extending transversely of the tractor at the rear of the tractor, a pair of fixed spaced ears on the beam, and a frame fixedly attached to the ears and rising above the beam. Side plates fixed to each end of the beam are provided and a scraper blade rotatably mounts in each of the side plates at the rear of the side plates. A plurality of scarifying fingers are mounted on the frame.
A patent that relates to a land leveler blade is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,213,554 entitled "Implement Rotary Draw Bar and Hitch Connections" issued to N. J. Dalton. The Dalton patent discloses a curved blade having end plates at opposing ends of the blade. The apparatus disclosed in the Dalton patent is described as a scraper.
An earth working machine having scarifying and scraping implements is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,324,955 entitled "Earth Working Machines" issued to L. Perold. The '955 patent includes a scraper and a scarifying tool spaced fore and aft from each other along the body of the implement. The scarifying tool is selectively movable between earth working and transport positions and the scraper is rotatable about an upright axis.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,448,814 issued to T. A. Bentley discloses a grader bucket construction. The apparatus includes a bucket having a lower scraping edge at the rear of the bucket, plow blades at the front of the bucket, racking tines between the scraping edge and the plow blades, and a grooved roller mounted to the rear of the bucket. The apparatus has a back filled blade mounted thereon and includes means for selectively positioning the racking tines and the roller into and out of operating position.
A combination disk and leveler is the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 4,257,487 entitled "Water Stop Attachment and Border Disk". The '487 patent provides a device that includes a transverse frame member having depending border disk mounts. The transverse frame member also has a hitch extending forwardly therefrom for attachment to a three point hitch on a tractor. The water stop attachment has a ladder type frame work with one side of the ladder frame pivotally attached to the border disk transverse frame member. A spaced parallel frame member of the ladder frame is attached to a plurality of stop blades which are located directly behind the depending border disk mounts. A single hydraulic cylinder extends between a raised portion of the three point hitch and a central member of the ladder frame for raising and lowering the stop mechanism upon actuation of hydraulic switch or valve located in the cab of a tow vehicle.
A depth control for agricultural implements is disclosed in the Pettibone U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,732. The '732 patent discloses a control for selectively setting the operating depth of a ground working agricultural tool without changing the elevated height to the tool when in the transport position. The control includes a ground supported wheel frame pivotally mounting a tool frame. The tool frame is pivoted on the wheel frame between the raised inoperative position and a lowered operative position by operation of a cylinder assembly. The cylinder assembly is pivoted at one end to the tool frame. Its remaining end is connected to a bracket on the wheel frame. The bracket includes a slot, slidably mounting the remaining end of the cylinder. The slot is aligned along an arc centered on the pivot axis of the cylinder at its one end when the tool frame is elevated to the inoperative position. An adjustment on the bracket enables positioning of the remaining cylinder end within the slot without changing the stroke length of the cylinder. The adjustment can be operated to raise or lower the tool frame in relation to the wheel frame, thereby changing the operating depth. Such adjustments are said to not affect the transport position of the tool frame.
The Miskin U.S. Pat. No. 4,553,608 provides a scraper machine for ground leveling and earth planting having a scraper unit and a ripper assembly for scarifying and loosening the advance of leveling and planing and with the ripper assembly being carried by a raised front end member of the scraper unit, vertically adjustable with respect to the scraper unite, and pulled through a ripper tongue that is pivotally connected to a main tongue of the scraper unit.
The Springfield U.S. Pat. No. 4,898,247 discloses a earth scraper attachment adapted to be drawn by a farm tractor or other vehicle having a vertically adjustable three point hitch has an elongated frame with a front tongue portion connectable tot he hitch with a specially designed hitch connection member. A rear end portion of the frame is supported on opposite sides of the longitudinal axis of the frame by a pair of wheels whose heights relative to the frame bay be selectively and independently adjusted. Depending from a longitudinally central portion of the frame is an earth scraping blade which is supported on the frame for pivotal motion about a generally vertically extending axis, and may be locked in a selected pivotally adjusted position. A laterally spaced series of downwardly extending earth ripping teeth are supported beneath the frame forwardly of the scraping blade and are used to rip and loosen the earth prior to operation thereon by the scraping blade. The independent height adjustment of the rear support wheels, together with the tongue height adjustment provided by the three point hitch are said to allow various positional adjustments to be made to the frame including uniformly raising or lowering the overall frame, altering its front-to-rear tilt angle and altering its side-to-side tilt angle about the longitudinal frame axis. These frame positional adjustments, coupled with the pivotal adjustment capability of the scraping blade permit the blade and its associated ripping teeth are said to be variously positioned to perform most of the sophisticated earth-scraping and grading functions of heavy duty commercial apparatus, such as motor graders at a fraction of the cost thereof.